A couple of weeks ago, while in Micheal’s, I got in the mood for a craft other than knitting/spinning/yarn whatever. I hit up the jewelry aisle figuring I wouldn’t find anything due to my silver allergy and I got super lucky. Did you know that you can get platinum plated items? I didn’t! So I grabbed those flower earring posts, the butterflies, some rings and necklace latches. Then I went over to the beads and found that neat piece of glass/rock and some teal and green beads that were in a set. I didn’t want to invest a lot since this is still so new so I got a small bead/notions holder and mini sized tools to fit in it which should be good enough to keep me going for a while.
The earrings took just a few minutes to hook together and I almost don’t want to say that I “made” them. I considered adding some beads to make them more of a dangle but with my lack of height, I didn’t want to overwhelm my face. I’ll have to find an excuse to wear them soon. The necklace took a little more thought to decide how to attach the stone and then pick a pattern for the beads. I went with a small-medium-large-large-medium-small and then repeat pattern. The big beads had some size variation so I’m glad that the latch covers some of that up length difference. There are a lot of beads left so I’m thinking about making a long strand that I can loop around. Or maybe several strands of differing length to hook together. Or something.
Will this be a long lasting hobby for me? Don’t know yet. Did I have fun with these pieces? Definitely!
Peaches has been mostly hanging out close to me and has made it quite clear to everyone that she’s my cat/I’m her human. She’s too small to make Nimitz leave so she puts up with his presence but the other cats have been told to stay away when she’s around. I miss Callie. Peaches did get me a present a few days ago to show her appreciation of me so I can’t be too upset. What did she get me? A mouse. Dead. Left next to my bed on the floor so I’d see it when I got up in the morning. Isn’t she so sweet?
Nimitz had a tough day yesterday. Groomers from 8am-3pm and then agility from 5-7pm. Plus he doesn’t have my Dad around to con into giving him extra cheese this week. Also, I’m making him wear a bandanna which you can’t see because he’s laying on it. Rough life.
And a quick question for all you dog owning friends. Do you consider your dog a good partner for walking that would deter someone from trying to attack you? I typically feel pretty safe with Nimitz because he’s large and I don’t really go any place that’s not generally safe though I’m having doubts about some of the walking paths and going on an actual hike in the woods with just us. The problem then is finding someone to go with me on a schedule that I like.
Hey all. Feels a little odd to come back after that unplanned break. Things just got a little overwhelming and I didn’t knit or spin or anything for a little over two weeks. Also barely went online at all which some people might have noticed. I’m feeling better now so it’s time to get back into a routine and continue to feel better.
For reference, the blue/brown is Hello Yarn Merino in Gravel, the white/beige is Hello Yarn Targhee in Parritch and the yellow/brown/blue is Hello Yarn Corriedale in Seasick.
I was getting worried that I wouldn’t get even one goal done for the Tour and unfortunately, I was right. The second bobbin of the blue/brown was mostly done before I went out of town at the beginning of July and then I finished it up when I got back but couldn’t bring myself to do more until this last Saturday. I did about half of the white/brown on Saturday and the wheel was feeling a little strange again. Sunday morning the scotch tension cord began to really vibrate and the treadles where getting tough to push again. I contacted Sheila (Bosworth) right away this time and she set up a time for Jonathan to call me in the afternoon. I played a little more with the wheel and discovered that I needed to sit in a higher chair for some reason and I could control the vibrating by going slower (no fun). Turns out the cord was frayed and I could retie the cord to have the contact be on a non-frayed section but there still seems to be some extra vibration. Jonathan is sending me new cords so I can swap it out and hopefully not have more problems. They have really good customer service because they really don’t like to see any of their products having problems.
So back to spinning and I finished up the white/beige and then got the yellow/brown/blue spun up pretty quickly. This is where I was at around 8-9pm last night.
I watched an episode of Deadliest Catch, Leverage, the premier of Mad Men and Rubicon and I had 750 yards of three ply with more remaining on the bobbins, but no brain power left to do more. I’m exhausted today and having a hard time thinking so I hope this post makes any sense at all! I did so much more spinning in five days than I thought possible, but didn’t finish the goal of 1.75 pounds of fiber finished during the tour. Maybe next year I’ll be able to stay focused. I think I need to become a shut in or something to make sure nothing affects me.
Another 2.5 hours this morning and I now have 948 yards of three ply in a worsted/heavy worsted weight yarn for a sweater. After a wash I think it’ll plump up to a full heavy worsted so I should be good to go. There’s 52 yards of the blue/brown which is navajo plied and 47 yards of the white/beige which was also navajo plied. They will either be accents on the sweater or a striped hat. Can’t decide. I’ve never spun for a sweater before so I’m really excited to have this finished at all. Hopefully the new band fixes my wheel issues so I can get back to spinning again!
I met up with an old friend and her dog for a doggy playdate last weekend and Nimitz had a grand time. He didn’t play with the other dog but he did enjoy his first off-leash nature walk. We went to an abandoned office development that my friend has been to a lot and Nimitz went bounding through the tall grass like a bunny and I swear he kept smiling at me. He got hot pretty quickly but tried to not let it dampen his enthusiasm as he made nests in the shady areas. He never went out of my sight (I think he was afraid that I’d accidentally leave him) so we’ll definitely try this again some time.
Between the heat, the travel and being in a little bit of a funky mood, not much has been happening around here. Unless you count watching marathons of TV shows that I refuse to admit to having ever seen and making progress on a DS game. I’m trying to get back into a productive routine today but I have to play a little catch up first. I should be getting back to spinning today and I’ll be doing some stash reorganization as well which might be interesting to share with you all. I love organizing things. And I think I might upgrade my Wordpress to 3.0 this weekend so hopefully nothing breaks while I do this!
So the Singer. It was my Grandmothers and is in an interesting little Singer desk. I had no idea the machine was in there until my Dad showed it to me and I instantly fell in love.
After doing a little bit of research on the 66-18, the machine is from the late 1940’s and quite a few of these of these babies were produced. I haven’t plugged it in yet to test if it works but I think it will based on how well my Grandmother took care of everything. I’m hoping this will make a nice little work horse for straight stitching. Even if it doesn’t, it’s still very pretty and I can use it for display while I decide how much to put into making it work again. I read something about the wiring not holding up well over time.
Another of the treasures from last week is this poodle. It was broken and repaired and is obviously missing a piece or two from it’s back. Has anyone ever seen anything like this before and know what it might be?
My Grandmothers sister was quite prolific with crocheting and crafting. Here are some of the unused clown doll faces on one of her afghans. I don’t know if there is still an intact clown doll around but I hope I can find one even though I think clowns are creepy. I took the pic just for Kim who noticed it immediately on Flickr.
Nimitz was very unhappy with last weeks heat wave and I really felt quite bad for him. It took a couple of days before we discovered that the first floor air conditioner still had a little juice left in it so we all suffered quite a bit and then I had a hard time getting him to be upstairs with me instead of either in front of the AC or in front of a fan that was blowing the AC air onto him. The cure for his separation anxiety is apparently temperature related.
My wheel is working thanks to the Bosworth’s most excellent customer service! The problem was with the scotch tensioning and my wheel being one of the very few that does something weird with it. They don’t know what causes it or why it happens but they know how to fix it. Yay!
The unfortunate thing is that life has gotten a bit in the way so all I spun today was about an ounce or so more of Gravel. This will be the last spinning until this weekend but then I’m going to go crazy with the spinning again. Now that I know that it’s possible for me to spin at least 4 oz a day, I have much grander plans for the remainder of the tour!
First, anyone else (I know Dave) out there using a JW? I was spinning along and minding my own business and my JW starting going all wonky. I had done 8oz of spinning today with no issues and than WHAM. Wheel no go. It’s so frustrating because I thought I’d get all these singles plied tonight!
That’s right, I finished up the last little scrap onto the blue, and then spun up 4oz of Seasick (the yellow) and 4oz of Parritch (the white-ish). Just today. I amazed myself! Wonder if I can pat myself on the back without dislocating a shoulder… I didn’t think that I could honestly get through this much in just one day. I can’t wait to spin up the rest and then see how much fiber I can power through during the rest of the tour. That is if I can get the wheel working again.
Before giving up completely, I did force out 116 yards of three ply. This weighed 2.5 oz and I think after washing I’ll end up with a heavy worsted weight. I think. This is a bit over plied because I wanted a tighter yarn but after washing it’ll be fine. I just really really really wanted to ply up the whole 12 oz tonight, not just 2.5. I think I need a good pout. At least if my math holds up, I should get around 1100 yards which should be plenty for the sweater I’m planning.
Peaches can be quite the Zen looking cat. I never noticed until recently that her nose wasn’t solid pink, but is more of a pink/beige marbled color. I’m really liking my new camera!
Going to try out something different for the next few weeks during the Tour de France. If I have the energy, I’m going to post my daily spinning each night. This will be a nice way for me to keep track of what I’ve done this year.
I couldn’t quite get the full 4oz onto this bobbin but I was close. I probably could force the last bits on but it’s not crucial to my happiness. I love my Journey Wheel but at some point I want a wheel with jumbo bobbins and maybe even a woolie winder so I can spin more at once without breaking off. This might be the most I’ve spun in one day before and I so hope I can keep this up! At this rate I’ll get my first 24 ounces spun and plied in just one week leaving me two more weeks to play with other fibers.
Today you get a random cat photo. I’m not promising an animal pic each post but I’ll see what happens.
Has anyone else upgraded to Wordpress 3.0 yet? Any problems? I haven’t heard much but it sounds like it would be worth the upgrade if no one has heard any disaster stories.
For those that like the Lego video games… I got the Harry Potter one yesterday and so far it’s very fun!
Tour de Fleece Prep
Some of you may have heard about this, and some may have participated, but for those in the dark, it’s almost Tour de Fleece time. I don’t know when it started but during the Tour de France, spinners all over get together and spin fiber and call it the Tour de Fleece. We are basically spinning along with the riders. A group on Ravelry makes a big event out of it with prizes and teams and such so it’s kind of a fun thing to do. I joined up with the Hello Yarn group and decided to spin all Hello Yarn fiber. My spinning results have been mixed in the past but I’m feeling ready to go this year. I even ordered more bobbins so I’ll be up to seven for my Journey Wheel! Here’s my current Hello Yarn stash minus the 24 ounces set aside that I photographed next. I should also be getting another 28 ounces in the mail by the end of this week. I definitely have a lot to choose from! All those little bags make it look like the yummiest candy.
Here’s my first up spinning pick. The far left is 100% Merino in an old shop color called Gravel. I have 12 ounces of this but I only need 8. The middle is Targhee in a recent club color called Parritch (porridge) which I have 8 ounces of. I really like it and love people spinning it on its own for sweaters, but it’s going to be a part of the team for me. The far right is another recent club color called Seasick and is Corriedale, another 8 ounces. I’m planning to make a three ply (one ply for each color) and with a total of 24 ounces I should be able to get a sweater out of this.
Just to double check the colors, I braided them together and I really like them. I don’t know if the fiber types will play nicely together so we’ll see. I can’t wait to get spinning!
Beast
Nimitz has been having quite the week so far. Monday was our first Therapy Dog class, Tuesday he got a deer antler in the mail and today he went to daycare while I did some shopping. I think the deer antler is his favorite of the activities mentioned. He chewed on it quite a bit yesterday but hasn’t really had the time to today. I worry about his teeth since he doesn’t like chewing things and I don’t always remember to brush so I’m hoping that this helps. I’d never heard of deer antlers as chews before but they seem to be around now that I’m looking. With his beef allergy, our chewing options are not that great. These are all naturally shed antlers and we got a super large one so he wouldn’t choke. I’m thinking that this is going to last us quite a while!
Scrap Blankie
I don’t know what’s up but I’m exhausted today. It’s not like I have any real reason to be but I’m having a tough time getting moving. I’m just glad that I made it to the laptop at all today. I spent a lot of time knitting this weekend which felt good since I didn’t feel like knitting much over the last few weeks.
Besides knitting (and reknitting a portion of) a sample for Knit Picks, I decided that it was time to get going on my scrap Vesper sock yarn blanket. I considered making mixed up striping socks but decided that a blanket showing the history of my sock knitting would last a bit longer. I’m using the 10 stitch blanket pattern (based on an Elizabeth Zimmerman blanket pattern) because I like the thought of the spiraling stripes. For needles I’m using US 2.5 size and boy are they a pain to get back when one falls into the crevice of the sleeper sofa.
Currently I have twelve socks knit so I would up the scraps from them in chronological knit order into a center pull ball. I figure that this way I can wind more on if I knit another sock before I knit up the ball. I don’t know if I’ll call this done when I hit a certain size or when I finish up my stash but I’m guessing it’ll be size related based on my stash size. I’m guessing this is going to be quite the “interesting” blanket to look at when it’s done!
Beasts
Callie has been coming downstairs to see me more often which is good and bad. Good because I like her and her tummy is very soft and pet-able. Bad because when she gets on my lap I feel like I have to stay there and let her nap so I don’t get up as much to do things like write emails.
Nimitz is also acting quite tired which is good for me. He let me sleep way in, take him on a shorter walk and then veg out with my knitting and season six of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I hope he’s at least saving up some energy for our first therapy dog class tonight!
Felted Callie
I saw the Crafty Alien kit for a felted calico cat (Swat Team Kitties) a few years ago at the no longer in business yarn shop, Woolcott, in Harvard Sq. I really wanted it because how cute to have a mini Callie! Then I got it home and remembered how much I dislike felting The kit sat in my stash, no longer loved for a long time. I even tried to sell it at one point but no takers. I finally got so sick of seeing it last week that I broke it open and just made it. The knitting was done in an afternoon, the seaming during a pre-dinner chat with Jon and the felting that evening. It took a day or so to dry and then I had a heck of a time with the face getting it to look like what I had in my mind. Callie seems a little dubious of her mini-me.
I think my issue with the cat is that the spots are sewn on separately which makes the head look like it has a wig instead of a nice round shape that the other Swat Team cats have. IF I were to make this again (big IF) I’d do intarsia on the spots to get a more rounded look. Since the head was no longer round, I tried several times to get the eyes and nose in a spot to maximize cuteness. I need to redo the white on the eyes but I just can’t bring myself to touch it anymore. I don’t know what the yarn in the kit was but it felted like a dream. I basically just looked at it in the hot soapy water and it was done. Ok. Maybe I had to rub it in my hands for a few minutes but it wasn’t the half hour of scrubbing I was expecting. Callie seems to have come to terms with her mini-me.
Looking at the Crafty Alien site, she seems be switching over to crochet for her patterns instead of felted knitting. Or maybe just adding it in. I’m considering buying a print or two of hers because I think that they are adorable. Mini-Callie has a very important job of guarding the square of Vesper yarn in the bookcase. I’m debating renewing my sock club subscription (I say this every time) so her guarding duties may actually end some day.
Beast
I was trying to get a shot of Nimitz showing off his clean pearly whites but the mouth area is a bit blown out light-wise. I do like that the camera can get Nimitz’s features without having to lighten the photo later so it was strange about the mouth. We just got back from a 1.3 mile walk and he’s acting like we’ve done a 3 mile walk. Apparently we’re a little out of shape. He does his evaluation today at the other day care in town so hopefully he’s not too worn out. Then agility tomorrow and Therapy Dog on Monday. He’s going to be so pooped by the middle of next week! Hope you all have a fun weekend!
Four Winds Hat
I recently had the pleasure of knitting the Four Winds Hat for Alastair for his upcoming double knitting book. Since it’s already published in the Twist Collective I’m allowed to share and to tell you all to buy his book when it comes out next year! I knit the more basic of the two versions using a fleur-de-lis pattern instead of the compass letters so it was a pretty relaxed knit. I got a little stuck with it while traveling because of needing the chart to knit the top but finally finished it up last night while watch (dare I admit this) Teen Moms on MTV. I probably should have switched to Netflix Instant or just turned the TV off.
My photos aren’t that great but you can see how cool the top is. I don’t do a lot of double knitting but I’m comfortable enough with it that I taught a class on it once in Vermont. This was a fun little pattern and I’m going to have to consider doing one for Jon with the letters on it.
Here’s the reverse side of the top. For me I’ll do one of the other decrease options but I do like the look of these decreases as well. I wonder how many times he had to knit it to get the charts to way he wanted…
Beasts
I have one other photo of Samantha that I really liked where she was watching me in the mirror. She really likes drinking water straight from the faucet down in the basement bathroom so I’m sure I’ll get more opportunities to get her in front of the camera.
Nimitz is feeling better and after a spurt of energy the last couple of days and me making him do a 2 mile walk yesterday, his energy level is back down. That’s fine with me because it’s keeping him from trying to be sneaky and investigate the cats litter boxes for “treats” when he thinks I’m not paying attention to him. I’ve also started him in local agility classes, he’s signed up to take Therapy Dog classes and we’re trying out a different daycare in town that I think I’ll like better than the other one we tried out. I’m hoping to keep him fairly busy this summer while also giving me some time away from him to do some shopping and maybe go see a movie or two.
Callie is starting to come see me more often (she spent the night on my pillow last night) but Peaches is more of a stable presence. She’s in my lap right now as I type! Of course she sensed that I was typing about her and is gone now. The lighting in the basement is definitely on the yellow side so all my pics of her come out really nice because it brings out the orange in her fur. I’m really enjoying playing with the camera with all the animals but I think it’s time to get outside for some better variety!
